Just one whole comic this week. So, I have another story from my many adventures as a comic book store clerk to share with you all.

Maestros #2 - The Maestro is dead, long live the Maestro! For William Little, being last in line for the throne didn’t grant any exemptions from the brutality of Wizarding school, Hogwarts it wasn’t. Now, Willy’s family is dead and he’s the new Maestro, armed with the most powerful spell in creation, he has a few lessons of his own for the mad mages of his new magical kingdom. What could go wrong?

I’m not sure if this a symptom of a certain type of shop - like an LCS - magically creates the kind of lure for a certain type of person. In essence, a vortex. Or a geographical anomaly. But we would get a colorful assortment of people. For the most part they were harmless oddballs. One guy in particular, the one I’m writing this about, was a soft-spoken fellow. And by soft-spoken, I mean Avery barely said hi and proceed to the back issue bins to rummage for who knows what since he rarely ever bought anything.

I would opened the store at 10 a.m. and I’d find him waiting for me. At a guess, this was his favorite time to visit. While Avery was searching for some unknowable prize, I started to notice that he would do some thing peculiar. He would be flipping through the bins, and then suddenly, lift his gaze, turn to the front door and eyes locked in with this fucking scowl; The kind that could burn a hole through solid objects.

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As if he was waiting for his mortal enemy to walk into the store for the final confrontation of which Avery would terminate with extreme prejudice.

But that wasn’t the thing that stood out the most. As his searing glare focused on that front door, he would take out a mustache comb and without missing a beat he’d proceed to groom his the stache.

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This happened every. single. time. he. came. into. the. store. He might inject some tidbit to a conversation I’d be having with someone else, but usually, keeping to himself and this... ritual. I mean, it got so he had me convinced someone or something momentous would come in through that door. But that never happened.

In the end, Avery was harmless, and that was just fine with me. I’d prefer him actually buying something, though he seldom did. It’s important to mention that he never took the comics out of the bags as he performed a searched, but that’s just the way things would go at the comics shop.